Camden -

National Trails Day Work at the Ragged Mountain Recreation Area in Camden. Photo by John Anders.

CAMDEN – This past Saturday June 5th, in spite of the gloomy weather, thirty hardy folks gathered at the Ragged Mountain Recreation Area (home of the Camden Snow Bowl) to celebrate National Trails Day and to perform work on local trails. This event was co-sponsored by the Camden Parks and Recreation Department, Coastal Mountains Land Trust, Georges River Land Trust, the Mid-coast Chapter of the New England Mountain Bike Association, and the Ragged Mountain Recreation Area Foundation Capital Campaign Committee. It was amazing to see what a dedicated group of volunteers can accomplish in a couple of hours of hard work! Many thanks are due to all the people that contributed to the success of the event:

Thanks to Joe Ryan for his vision, organization, and publicity efforts that pulled the whole event together and spread the word about this local celebration of the national event.

Thanks to John Viehman a co-founder of National Trails Day, for his historical context and inspirational thoughts about the value of trails in our community and across the country.

Thanks to Ian Stewart from Coastal Mountains Land Trust, Bruce Gerard from Georges River Land Trust and John Anders from the Mid-Coast Chapter of the New England Mountain Bike Association for their efforts to mobilize their support base, and for cracking the whips on their respective trail crews.

Thanks to the barbecue volunteers and the bakers of those deliciously decadent dessert bars.

Thanks to Hannaford Supermarket for donating all the bottled water.

And finally, thanks to all the volunteers who turned out in spite of a dismal forecast and managed to accomplish such valuable trail work on three different local trails on Bald and Ragged Mountain.

We look forward to continuing the tradition of celebrating National Trails Day again the first Saturday in June for many years to come.